Liberal Democrats split on grey squirrels

Congratulations to Nick Clegg for his Your Freedom initiative. It is has reminded us that there is more to Liberalism than the slightly playground virtue of "fairness" and recaptured for him some of the freshness that so wowed the nation in the first leaders' debate.

But it has to be admitted that in introducing it Nick has revealed a schism in the Liberal Democrats.

For, reaching for an example of an absurd law, he said:

I’ve just discovered for instance, would you believe it, that there’s still an old law in the statute book that says it’s an offence if you don’t report a grey squirrel in your own back garden.

As the FT Blog pointed out, as a former press officer for Cairngorms National Park, Danny Alexander is unlikely to take this relaxed view of grey squirrels. That park, you see, is a haven for reds.

But it is far worse than that.

Last year we wrote about involvement of the Lib Dem peer Rupert Redesdale in the Red Squirrel Protection Partnership. This aims to protect and restore the population of red squirrels in the North East of England by eradicating greys.

The last we heard of Redesdale's partner Paul Parker, he was selling greys to "top chefs" in the South of England.

What does Nick say to that?